


Roses & Violets

by CotyCat82



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-26
Updated: 2016-03-26
Packaged: 2018-05-29 03:39:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6357436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CotyCat82/pseuds/CotyCat82
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Peggy does have that persuasive conversation with Violet<br/>or<br/>In which Peggy is not the only special woman in the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Roses & Violets

**Author's Note:**

> For a feminist show, what they did with Violet really bothered me. This is my effort to give her some of her power back. 
> 
> For purposes of this story, we are going to assume the body fell on the van before Daniel told Peggy she was the reason Violet ended the engagement, but after Peggy said she’d speak to Violet.

She’d closed her eyes as the headache that had been forming all day finally took hold of her; squeezing them so tightly that colors danced behind her eyelids. Reds and greens and blues….and violets. And suddenly, she could see him there in her mind’s eye. It had been their first date and he’d been clutching a potted plant that bore her name so tightly his knuckles had been white. Handing it over, he’d said, “The flower’s just like you. Pretty and simple.” 

Then realizing how that sounded, he’d stuttered and tried to apologize. At the time, she had found it endearing. And even a little odd, because she knew what he was giving her was a rare flower: An African Violet. You couldn’t buy them in a bouquet and the potted ones, if you could find them, required real care. Yet, he’d thought of the flower as humble and simplistic in some way, for some reason.  
In retrospect, it should have been a major red flag for her. A sign that he was looking for solace from something that could never be called simple and pretty. 

Shaking off the memory, Violet sighed and kicked the car into park, then opened her eye again to the blazing California sun. Well, that should at least be the worst of it. Thank god, she hadn’t been able to reach her parents yesterday. They never needed to know. Her big news to them could be that she and Daniel had broken it off. No need to mentioning the ring or the engagement, or anything other than it didn’t work out. 

At work, she’d hadn’t had that luxury. She’d gone in the day before with the engagement ring and a huge smile on her face. And today, she’d shown up with neither. And been either riddled with questions or treated to pitying looks. It hadn’t helped that most of her colleagues had known Daniel from when he’d been in physical therapy. Many of her work friends had felt invested in the relationship and entitled to know what had gone wrong. 

And what had gone wrong is that Violet should have listened to her intuition from the beginning. Daniel, handsome and kind, smart and gentle, had seemed too good to be true. It had struck her wrong that someone with everything going for him should apparently think so little of himself. Been so grateful for every piece of affection that she gave him; shocked that he was wanted and desired. She should have known that he had broken heart written all over him. 

But she hadn’t, and here she was now nursing a broken heart of her own. More than a whole day in now. She’d deserved and had every intention of treating herself to a stiff drink, a hot bath and another cry. But when exiting her car, Violet saw, shy of Daniel, the one person she least wanted to deal with: Peggy. 

Sitting on her steps, Peggy had risen upon seeing Violet, so it wasn’t as if she could turn and run. Avoid a horrible ending to her horrible day. God damn Daniel. Regardless of if he had any intention of telling the British woman about his feelings for her, he damn well should have said enough to prevent her from coming here. 

But then Peggy had clutched at her side and Violet’s better instincts, her nurses training, kicked in and she surged forward to help. Once inside and settled on a stool in her kitchen, she’d found that Peggy had pulled some of her stiches. So much for following Violet’s advice about taking it easy, being boring, for a while. 

“I’ll need to redo your stitches.” Violet told her.

Peggy had just nodded, saying, “Yes. I’d assumed. Thank you for doing so.” Then fell into a deep silence. Only occasionally taking an audible breath or making a small moan against the pain. Once again astounding Violet with her self-possession and steely determination. During the war, Violet had tended soldiers twice Peggy’s size who’d not handled the kind of pain Peggy had swallowed with such dignity. 

Trying to subtly observe her while she worked, Violet looked up at Peggy’s pale and perfect English complexion. Living in LA as long as she’d had, Violet had seen more than one movie actress up close and personal, and it struck her then that Peggy looked like she could fit right in with them. She was so damn striking. But more than that, there was an unquestionable vitality to her. Strength in her limbs and determination in her posture. And a breath of life, in the rosy flush that so beautifully swept across Peggy’s cheeks. 

And Violet stopped dead in her motions then; realization hitting her like a slap. If Violet was the purple flower of her namesake, Peggy was a rose. And not the tamed English variety. She was the type of rose that grew wild and of its own accord. No pot and tender care for her. She was all stunning beauty and dangerous thorns. And Violet could suddenly see how Daniel could have been cut by her so badly, even as the woman would never have meant to have hurt him. 

Suddenly sadder for Daniel than herself, Violet redoubled her efforts. Working fast, but efficiently. She needed to get Peggy out as quickly as possible with as little said between them as she could manage. Maybe Peggy didn’t know. She could see Daniel being too proud to tell her. Perhaps she could still manage to get the English woman out the door with some preserved dignity, but then Violet suddenly found herself staring at her bare ring finger. And noticed Peggy looking at her look at it. 

Damn. Peggy had known coming in the door. The pulled stitches had just been an excuse, but for what? What the hell could she possible have come here to say or do? 

Finally finished, Violet had just been about to tell Peggy it would probably be best that she leave, when Peggy had said, "Thank you. I’m grateful to you for both your kindness and your efficiency. And I’d like to repay that in a way that may seem as if I am overstepping at first, but I hope will prove to be an offer of friendship and guidance that is eventually taken as the kindness I mean it to be.”

Violet just felt herself blinking stupidly for a moment. Peggy had clearly scripted what she’d been planning to say in her head. She’d rehearsed this. And of all the things that the woman - for all intents and purposes the other woman - could have come here to say, what Peggy had launched into was the last thing Violet had expected to hear. 

“I am aware that you ended your engagement to Chief Sousa. Daniel is too much the gentlemen to speak of the details, but he did let slip it was due to some folly of his own. I find it hard to believe that Daniel could be unthinking with someone he cares for, but I can assure you he is sincerely sorry and misses you very much. I came here to speak his part and ask you to please reconsider your position. You’ll not find a better man. One more steadfast or true, gentle or kind. Daniel is as good-hearted as he is clever. Respectful, good-natured and frankly both oddly pragmatic and idealistic at the same time.” 

Leaning forward and putting her hand on hers, Peggy has said. “I beg of you, Violet. Please do think this through more. I fear you will live to regret not pursuing, I mean, not continuing a life with him.”

Violet sat there in stunned silence. Anger washing over her in waves. 

Once she and Daniel were serious, once she was in his world just enough to know that it involved guns and sleuthing, she’d heard of Agent Carter by reputation in the office. Fearsome and fearless. The best, smartest agent they had. Things Violet never heard from Daniel, or the fact that Agent Carter was a beautiful woman, but still. The men admired both her tenacity and brains. How could someone, a woman, so respected and admired professionally for being insightful and fast acting have been so tragically clueless in her own personal life?

Realizing that she shouldn’t care, except for how it affected her - how this other woman’s actions or inactions or indecisions had ruined Violet’s quite little dreams of a small house and a family with a man who’d never not need a crutch - Violet stood and said, “I think you need to leave.” Her voice had been more even, more commanding than she thought it would be.

“I know this must be hard to hear,” Peggy had replied, not moving so much as an inch. “It’s never pleasant to admit you have made a mistake, but truly, in circumstances like this swallowing your pride is quite worth the price of happiness. And I can assure you that however Daniel erred, he’ll not do so again. And that he’ll make it up to you as best he can. Please, Violet, do see and hear reason.”

Violet was in the dark of what exactly had transpired between Peggy and Daniel in New York. In her anger, she’d pushed Daniel for more details than perhaps she’d been entitled to. But as Peggy had said, Daniel was too much the gentleman to kiss and tell, or not kiss as the case may have been. Only finally saying, after Violet had outright demanded something from him by way of explanation that “She’s too good for me and knows it. Nothing more to it. She was kind…and I mistook a good friendship for….” Before falling silent and swallowing hard. 

“I think it’s time you left.” Violet had said again, walking towards the door so Peggy would at least have to follow her to keep talking at her.

“Truly, Violet. I am not saying these things to upset you. I just don’t think you understand what it is that you are doing in throwing Daniel away. And I am trying to return some of the kindness you’ve shown me by pointing out your folly.” Peggy had said, limping after her. “Surely, you don’t think that you could do better? Because I can assure you, there is not a better man to be found.”

Stopping so quickly in her tracks, Peggy nearly bounced off her, Violet had to shut her eyes for a moment to gather herself. Opening them again, cruelly, the first thing she saw was her potted violet from Daniel. It had been so tempting to turn and call the other woman out on not taking her own advice. To take a lump of flesh for the lump she’d lost. And it’s not that Violet was above that. 

She was so angry. At Peggy for either not either acknowledging and accepting Daniel’s love for her or breaking it in a way that would have set him free. At Daniel for not realizing that his heart still wasn’t his to give. And at herself for not seeing so clearly that she was interesting to Daniel because he perceived her to be the opposite of this other woman, who he’d moved across the country to try and escape. 

A day ago, she’d been planning on spending the rest of her life with Daniel. She’d cared for and nurtured their relationship in the same way she’d tended the potted flower he’d given her. The same way she’d first tended him as a nurse in PT, when years after his amputation he’d come in complaining of phantom pain. It was rare thing to need to go back into PT at that stage. How could she not have seen it then? How could she not have known that the phantom pain had nothing to do with his missing limb but rather his missing heart?

He’d cut himself on the thorns of this beautiful and brazen woman, who was wild as she was reckless and unseeing of the harm she could do just by being what she was. 

But none of that was Violet’s problem. In fact, for the first time, Violet felt that the end of the engagement might have been the best decision she’d ever made. She didn’t want to be perceived as pretty and simple. She deserved more than that. She deserved someone who saw her for the rare flower that she was, and it truly was best that she realized that Daniel did not before they were married. Because while she still didn’t doubt they could have been happy together and that he would have been a good and loving husband, he didn’t see her uniqueness. And more than a good provider and a good man, Violet wanted someone to see and know how special she was. 

And that was clearly not Daniel. 

Turning to face Peggy, Violet said with a steely voice that brokered no argument. “You’ve imposed on me in a way that you don’t seem to understand. And I am done listening to you. Please leave. Don’t come back and do me a favor,” ramming the potted violet in Peggy’s hand, before guiding the other woman to the door, “take this with you. And have someone instruct you on how to care for it, because I think you’ll need lessons on how to tend it.” 

She’d then gently pushed Peggy onto her porch and shut the door behind her. Violet saw the other woman standing outside for more than a good few moments. Moving the potted plant about in her hands to get a better look at it, likely wondering just what the hell to do with it.

**Author's Note:**

> A big thank you to Paeonia for helping me flush out this fiction. If you are in the fandom and not reading her remarkable Quo Vadis? may I strongly suggest that you do. It's a labor of love.
> 
> And to everyone who's kindly asked after Promises, it's not dead. It's just not done. I want to last chapter to wrap well and as soon as it's ready I'll post. Thank you for your interest in it.


End file.
